The Fighting Finchs of Fort Atkinson

TODAY - the 500,000th page of this blog will be read  - I WIN!!!!!   I outlasted Truth in Columbus Politics!   !!!  
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I was looking around for something on the net and somehow came across this old photograph of the Fort Atkinson bridge.  I believe it is from the 1910s.

Well one thing leads to another and I find myself reading an article that was printed in 1936 about the birth of Fort Atkinson as a town (as opposed to a military fort).

It's all rather mundane with sentences like "In the spring of 1837 E. N. Foster and Alvin Foster joined their brother, Dwight, at Fort Atkinson, bringing their families with them" and yada yada yada and "first year the pioneers knew marriage, and birth, and death", yada yada yada and "In the midst of life we are in death; of whom may we seek succor, but of thee, O Lord,"  blah blah blah  (succor? I think they are talking about soccer).

But then it get's interesting and if they would have taught this stuff when I was in JFK Luthor Junior High I might have turned out to be a more responsible citizen.This sounds more like a movie . . or even a sitcom!

In 1932 the government made a call to it's citizens to "fight that redoubtable warrior, Black Hawk"  (redoubtable means "arousing dread" but that just sounds dumb) and a family named Finch, then residing in St. Joe, Michigan, immediately offered all its available war material--the father and twelve sons.  YEA PA LIKE GO KILL INJUNS!!!  WHOO HOOO!!  This sounds good already!!

Well - they got through the Indian war without a scratch and settled near Fort Atkinson, on the  east side of Lake Koshkonong actually.  It seems the residents of St. Joe viewed their departure with some great relief.

At there little Finch camp they would have periodic "war-dances", obliviousness to the existence of other settlers. A few days after they had setteled in they unmercifully beat a Norwegian who was a previous settler in their locality.
 

"Sheriff Bird, of Dane County, hearing of the affair, repaired to the dominion of the Finches, for the purpose of asserting his power as an officer of the law (I picture him as Barny Fife); but he found the belligerents to be so numerous that he wisely concluded not to make a single-handed attack. Returning to Madison for reinforcements, he met and informed Gov. Dodge of the situation.
 
"Exhaust the power of the county, Sir," said Governor Henry Dodge "and if that don’t do, I’ll call out the militia, by God, sir. If that Finch tribe is going to run this Territory, I’ll find it out mighty soon, now I tell you."
 
Sheriffs Bird and Cole arrested one of the tribe, by exercising much strategy, and got him to Fort Atkinson. Ben and Nat Finch caught up with them just as they were sitting down to a hot dinner, but the doughty officials (Andy must have been with Barney) got the drop on them and they departed for reinforcements. At Lake Mills they took a new road to Madison, but left instructions with the proprietor of the tavern to tell any questioners they had taken the old road.

"The noise of the wagon rolling over the frozen earth had scarce died away in the adjacent forest, when ten men, armed with rifles and pistols, each mounted, appeared in front of the tavern door at Lake Mills. It was the Finch brigade. Alighting from their jaded animals (the animals were jaded?)  they filed into the bar-room, and, by way of introducing themselves to the affrighted inn-keeper, called for "the best in the shop."

"Did you see three men in a wagon pass this way?" queried Ben Finch, diving into the inner recesses of a corduroy coat and bringing forth a roll of "wildcat scrip" with which to settle for the drinks.

"Yah! Tree vagons and a men--da old road py Madison," quickly replied the inn-keeper.

"The old road, eh? The give us another dose, and we’ll take the same route," replied Finch, drawing his slouch hat mysteriously low upon his weather-beaten brow.

"To the great relief of the inhabitants of Lake Mills, the Finch cavalry were soon in their saddles and galloping away over the hills in the direction of Madison."

And that is where the story stops!  You have to make up the ending or wait for Universal Studios to come out with the movie!    I'm still looking for more information - this sounds awesome!!

The Great Lakes Archaeological Research Center has actually conducted a dig of the Finch Site near Fort.

I'll continue looking for more wild and wacky Finch Family stories. 

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PIZZA - we had the New Your Style and Neapolitan in the blog and today, Sicilian style.

Also known as a "square slice," because it's cut into squares. Sicilian pizza has "dough" over an inch thick. Similar to the dish known as tomato pie (I'll have more on the Trenton tomato pie this month).

Sicilian pizza are also known as Sfincione (meaning thick sponge) or Sfinciuni in Sicilian and instead of a "crust" like Rocky's it has a thick bread, baked on a sheet, not in a deep-dish pan, and topped with a sprinkling of leftovers, rather than coated thickly with anything.

The standard toppings for Sicilian pizza include bits of tomato, onions, anchovy, a few herbs, and a strong cheese like the Sicilian cheeses caciocavallo or pecorino, though Parmesan from northern Italy is sometimes used—in any case, an alternative to the mild mozzarella generally found on American pizza. The Sicilian pizza—like Greek pizza—is a distinct type of pizza, significantly different from American pizza.
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Now I'm hungry!

I went to the use to be "blight area" in Columbus but now it's "charred ruins area" which is actually BETTER looking.  These are from the site after I stepped over the Police barrier which seemed pretty easy to get across! (no yellow tape can hold ME). 

ya just can't beat a good fire to fix blight!  At least now the Amtrak people will say it must have been a nice place before it burned down. instead of - "WOW what a  skanky looking blight town, stay in the train".

BTW - R and R Construction who owns the blight have an annual revenue of about $372,000.  Let's see how long it takes them to unblight the area now. 


Have a great Tuesday!  


Rod